Kristian Prenga almost pulled off a major heavyweight upset against Anthony Joshua on Saturday.
The two fighters collided in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in a match-up that many expected to be a straightforward runout for Joshua in order to lead to the long-awaited showdown with Tyson Fury later this year.
Prenga clearly had other ideas, as he started the fight extremely well, displaying the big power that has seen him win 20 of his 21 fights by knockout when he dropped Joshua in the opening seconds of the contest with an uppercut.
Another knockdown in round one followed soon afterwards, though ‘AJ’ was then able to recover as Prenga allowed his rival back into the fight in the second round.
He paid the price for that, as Joshua landed a huge shot that sent the Albanian crashing to the canvas, earning ‘AJ’ the second round knockout win and denying Prenga the shock victory.
In a video captured by Boxing King Media, Prenga was praised for his power, but he insisted that it doesn’t matter as he was unable to come out on top.
“I showed him [my power] but I needed to win.”
The nature of the fight against Joshua means there could be big opportunities ahead for Prenga, with other fighters in the heavyweight division perhaps seeing the commercial value in now taking a fight against the Albanian.
As for Joshua, he is set to turn his attention to the long-awaited clash against Fury, after ‘The Gypsy King’ was also victorious this weekend, earning a seventh round retirement win against Mariusz Wach in Thailand.
